


Under Pressure

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Tides [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avalanches, Buried Alive, Gen, Prompt Fic, Quadruple Drabble, Survival, Team as Family, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4873213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura <em>will</em> survive until her teammates dig her out. (Part of the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/71629">Tides AU</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under Pressure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Branch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branch/gifts).



> This ficlet was written for [branchandroot](http://branch-and-root.tumblr.com) in response to the prompt: _How about some Naruto: Sakura, building pressure_.
> 
> It takes place at some unspecified point after [Troy in Reverse](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1183972).

When she gets out of here, Sakura decides, she is going to learn some earth jutsu. Not only will it be a practical way to shore up the team's weaknesses -- none of them are very good at defense, too focused on causing or fixing damage rather than preventing it in the first place -- it will ensure that she _never ends up this helpless again_.

She lifts her right hand the bare fingerbreadth she has room for and grinds her knuckles into the stones holding her underground. Chakra pulses through her body, waiting to be released, but precision can never entirely compensate for lack of raw strength and a strike would only bring the rest of the rubble tumbling down to crush her flat. It's already a miracle that she survived the first avalanche, that a trickle of fresh air is seeping in through some maze of hair-thin gaps too small and too offset to allow any light into her prison. Sakura doesn't want to press her luck.

It was nearly sunset when she and the boys ran across two former Earth-nin on the Wind Country border. She thinks it's probably midnight by now. She took out one of the idiots herself, which is why she was vulnerable to a strike in her blind spot. She's sure Naruto and Sasuke made short work of the other after he buried her. She's equally sure they'll dig her out eventually.

(Naruto could probably manage the excavation faster with a whirlwind, but she's glad either he saw sense or Sasuke punched some into him. Being the target of that much force, however well-intentioned, would also press her luck in ways she'd rather avoid.)

Something shifts above her and twenty tons of rock are suddenly resting directly on her left shin. Sakura grits her teeth against the shock of pain and channels her chakra to the point of contact, reinforcing bone, muscle, and skin. "Be careful!" she shouts, on the off chance that her teammates can hear.

No answer comes, just another shift and resettling of stone, this time onto the right half of her ribcage.

Fuck.

Sakura sacrifices her leg, orders herself to ignore the snap of bone and the slow seep of blood from veins and arteries she can't accurately pinch shut without either sight or the touch of her hands, and does her best to keep breathing until she sees the sky.


End file.
